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“Did Hannah make you say that?” Jessie asked playfully.
“No comment,” he answered.
“How is she, by the way?” Jessie asked before taking a bite.
“Amazingly, she said she was a little bored,” Ryan told her, shaking his head in disbelief. “She told me the required freshman classes were too easy. I thought she’d try to get me off the phone quickly, but she seemed excited to focus on the dinner prep. As far as the academics went, I told her to get back to me about whether those classes were still such a breeze after her first set of finals. She also asked how you were doing. I said I’d have you call yourself with an update. How are you doing, by the way?”
“Pretty good,” Jessie said, not wanting to get into specifics, certainly not about baby talk or her meeting with Captain Parker tomorrow. “Speaking of good, this salmon really is fantastic.
“Thanks,” he replied, refilling the glass of wine she’d only taken two sips from.
He was clearly committed to doting on her, maybe too much, but she appreciated the gesture anyway. She also appreciated that he didn’t press her on any of the topics that she knew were probably eating at him, most notably the very ones she wanted to avoid: kids and her potential return to work.
“So how was your day?” she asked, switching the focus before he changed his mind.
“Not bad,” he answered, “I finished up the paperwork on the Estrada case that we solved over the weekend. So I’ll be able to start fresh tomorrow if anything worthwhile comes in.”
‘And you’re getting along with Parker?” Jessie wondered.
“For the most part,” he replied. “There was bound to be a period of adjustment considering that I had her job and now I report to her. But that’s what I wanted – not to be responsible for everything—so I can’t really complain now.”
Jessie sensed that he wasn’t sharing the whole story, but considering that he hadn’t pushed her on the issues that she didn’t want to discuss, she decided to give him a pass for now as well.
“I do have a little potentially unpleasant news,” he volunteered reluctantly. “I was tempted not to say anything because I doubt it’s going to be an issue, but considering how that has backfired on me in the past, I wanted to be completely forthcoming.”
“That sounds ominous,” Jessie noted.
“Sorry, he said, “it’ll probably amount to nothing but here goes. You remember Costabile, of course.”
How could she forget? Former LAPD police sergeant Hank Costabile was once a celebrated officer with Van Nuys Division. That is, until Jessie and Ryan investigated a case that ultimately implicated his former boss, Commander Mike Butters, in an underage prostitution ring. When Jessie got too close, Costabile, who had been covering for Butters, coordinated a hit on her and almost succeeded before she took him down. He was currently serving twenty years to life for his efforts.
“Of course,” she agreed. “What’s going on with him?”
“As you know, his lawyers have been challenging his sentence on a variety of procedural grounds, all of which have been rejected up until now. But today, a new hearing was granted to address some issue related to the admission of certain evidence at his trial. Chief Decker called to give me a heads-up. The news will become public tomorrow."
“When is the hearing?” Jessie asked, trying to keep calm.
“Wednesday.”
“That’s only two days from now,” she replied. “Why so soon?”
“I don’t know,” Ryan admitted. “Decker thought it was a good sign, that it meant the court wanted to dispose of it quickly. He seemed confident that the whole thing will be dismissed without much fanfare. But I thought you should know. It’s possible some reporter might try to get a comment from you, and I didn’t want you blindsided.”
“I appreciate it,” Jessie said.
She left it at that, choosing not to focus too much attention on something that was unlikely to happen. If Decker was right, this would be a formality. And even if something went wrong and Costabile was released, he would never be so foolish as to bother her. The guy might be violent and corrupt, but he wasn’t stupid. Surely, he'd want to start over with a clean slate.
She assured herself there was nothing to worry about as she took a bite of the potatoes. They weren't as good as Hannah's, but still more than respectable.
“The potatoes are great too,” she half-fibbed.
She wasn’t quite sure what was lacking, especially since Hannah had coached Ryan through the process. It could be something as simple as her sister using a little more oil, or letting them sit in the oven for a minute longer to amp up the crispiness. Whatever the reason, they were missing a little something, just like this house—and Jessie—were missing something.
She missed her little sister.
CHAPTER THREE
“Thanks again for meeting this early,” Ryan said. “I know it’s out of the ordinary for you.”
